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Saturday, February 14, 2009

In two situations in the last week, or so, I've used my brilliant powers of etymology for the good of humanity.

OK, seriously, I geeked out and there was some massive fallout.

One, my boss and I were talking about religion and said something about bigomy, or polygamy. He said that one was for multiple spouses and the other for multiple wives but couldn't remember which. I said that bigamy was for 2 spouses, whereas polygamy was for 2 or more. The "bi" being 2 and the poly being "many."

Friday, Beck and I were talking and I used the word philanthropy. She looked at me funny and I said, phil is "love," like philosophy or Philadelphia and anthropy is from anthropos (or something like it) for "man" or humanity.